At one time Bret Bielema had a list of 23 candidates for the vacant running backs coach position at Arkansas. Some advice from Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun helped narrow the process.

"I'd asked him about a coach that had previously worked for him," Bielema revealed, "and he looked at me and said, 'You need a running backs coach?' I said 'Yeah, I do. Actually I'm losing my guy to the Saints,' and he goes, 'I got the guy for you.'"

"The guy" was Oklahoma State running backs coach Jemal Singleton who played at Air Force under Fisher DeBerry and had previously coached for Calhoun there. One of the things that caught Bielema's eye right away was Singleton's reputation for coaching ball security. In 2014 his OSU backs did not suffer a single turnover.